Grilling and smoking thread

Smoked about 19 pounds of pork butt for pulled pork this weekend. Tasty and as good as ever. Also grilled some hamburgers Sunday night and grilled a bone in pork roast (5 bone), something I had never cooked before. Was going to smoke it but I had to get it cooked so spiced it up and threw it on the grill (cookout at buddies house). Came out with the perfect char and so tender and juicy inside. Had a couple of the guys tell me that, as much as they like my pulled pork, and they like it a lot, they liked this even better and was actually some of the best meat they had ever had. I think I will be getting it again and cooking it.

In the past few weeks I've been experimenting with dual-zone direct/indirect heat grilling quite a bit. Made some bone-in chicken thighs last week that knocked our socks off. Peri peri (or piri piri) seasoning was something my wife picked up on while she lived over in the UK. It's a really spicy pepper sauce popularized in Portugal, and originating from Africa. Anyway, it's basically a combination of arbol chiles, fresh garlic cloves, a shallot, paprika, five-spice powder, cayenne, salt, sugar, lemon juice, tomato paste, and olive oil that you mix together and blend into a paste. Then you take a fork and give each thigh 4 or 5 sticks with it on each side and let the whole mess of them marinade overnight in a gallon-size Ziplock bag with the marinade. It made about 6 lbs of chicken thighs.

Anyway, the dual zone grilling made for some absolutely fantastic skin on the chicken, and the meat inside was perfect. Really nice (not overwhelming) heat from the peri peri marinade too.

Last trip to Kroger they had bone-in-thighs on sale for $0.88 a pound, so I bought a whole bunch for the deep freeze. We'll be making quite a bit of those with peri peri seasoning, if I had to guess.

Anybody smoking/grilling this weekend? I have a huge fish fry I'm going to and have been asked to bring my cowboy beans and smoked chicken. Instead of the chicken I might do a coupe of bone in pork roasts...char on the grill first then smoke.

What did you spice your bone in pork roast with and how long did you have it on the grill? Didn't the fat run off cause a lot of flames?

Spiced it with a sweet(ish) bbq rub I use when smoking it, also put some onion and garlic powder as well. Grilled it whole, didn't cut it into slices until after I cooked it. I think that kept it juicer, though it did take it longer to cook. Did't really flare up, juices stayed it if for the most part. Did have to man the grill though and do a lot of turning. Turned out excellent.

I'm going to smoke a 3lb sockeye salmon filet this evening, picked it up at Kroger last night for like $26. Seemed like a pretty good deal for sockeye considering it'll make 5-6 servings. I planned on picking up a brisket from my butcher today to toss on late tonight and finish up tomorrow but the Cinci Belle is going to be in town tomorrow so we're going to take a cruise on it instead. Not sure what the plan is for Sunday, but I'm sure it'll involve grilling/smoking something.

Just got back from the butcher shop. Picked up some fresh hamburger, 6 pound bone in pork roast, about a 10 pound brisket flat, some chicken quarters and a couple of different types of smoked sausage, one of which will go in my cowboy beans tonight.

Anybody got a rub recipe for brisket, other than the normal salt and pepper Texas style?

I've never seasoned brisket with anything other than sea salt and cracked black pepper, with a light coating of mustard to help it stick to the meat. If I were going to try something else I would probably do the mustard and montreal steak seasoning.

If nothing else I'm going to add a little bourbon smoked paprika and some garlic and onion powder..maybe a little white pepper too.

Tonight's Salmon.

Open, or grill door shut? Low or high heat? Our grill gets very hot very quickly. I would love to cook a pork roast that way, but have concerns about cooking at the proper temp and time.

Fixed it on a friend's old worn out grill...had hot and cold spots all over it. Had to move the thing constantly. With that, I did close the top for a while at times, but would probably done so more on my grill that cooks evenly.

You all are hard acts to follow but I'll give it a go.

I WILL NOT BE COOKING INDOORS this evening. We live in an old home without central air and we've been in the mid-upper 70s for the last couple days inside our home with the high humidity and heat!

So in honor of burger week I'll be grilling the following ground chuck recipe. Have fun determining the spice ratio per your likes. We use cumin, curry, garlic, and onion powders. At least a tablespoon per 2 lbs of beef. Place ground chuck in a good size bowl and mix well. Patty up and let sit in fridge for a couple hours before grilling.

Always cook to a mid rare ( one flip will get you there folks ) with solid heat/flame and splash beer on said burgers accompanied by a wee bit of salt and pepper after the flip.

We use a side grill burner to cook sides. Tonight we're going with asparagus. Olive oil, garlic, onion powder in skillet cooked to where you still have a lil crunch remaining.

No bun for the burger...I'll sprinkle some mild cheddar cheese on patties near completion.

Never disappoints and is rather easy to make. ENJOY and STAY COOL!!!

Smoked 11 chicken quarters and made my "almost famous" cowboy beans again (16 bean mix) with my smoked hamburger (2 pounds). This time in stead of bacon I used a spicy Cajun sausage. Made it even better in my opinion. Took all that to a fish fry Saturday evening. Only think is, it was so dang hot and muggy, to the point of being oppressive, most people just didn't want to eat a "hot" side dish with their fish, so I had some left over which never happens. However, I did have a few people who did have some seek me out and tell me how good they were, so that was nice.

Last night, went to my buddies house and took a 6 pound bone in pork roast and grilled it, along with several fresh hamburger patties he pattied out and spiced up. Delicious. Somehow I have become the grill master at his house when we cook out and I am the one doing all the grilling. Isn't going over to another guys house and doing the grilling on his grill kind of like going over to a guys house and sleeping with his wife? I mean, I thought that was a no no.

Have an 8 pound beef brisket flat I plan on smoking this week. Just got to time it correctly when to start it, hard to do during the week.

Wife is picking up a a whole chicken for tonight. Good night to do a beer can chicken on the grill. Also doing a vidalia onion stuffed with peppers and sausage along with either shrimp or scallops and mushrooms. Drooling now thinking about it.